Adaptive Coaching : The Art and Practice of a Client-Centered Approach to Performance Improvement

businessjournals.com, March 1, 2004
Of several books on executive coaching that I have read, ADAPTIVE COACHING would stand at the top of the list.

HR Magazine, May 2004
Coaches learn how to unearth the real issues underlying clients' immediate workplace problems. Helps coaches determine their natural style.

Training Media Review, May-June 2004
Has value for anyone engaged in coaching activities. Information is immediately useable; has the potential to positively impact any organization.

Peer Resources Top Coaching Books, July 2004
Every once in a while a book comes along that puts it all together. This is the book.

Training Media Review, January 2005
2004 Best2Buy winner. Has value for anyone engaged in coaching activities. Has potential to positively impact any organization.

Book Description
This book fills the huge gap between what companies and clients expect from coaching and what it actually does for them. Zeroing in on this popular technique to develop today's leaders, improve performance, and facilitate change, the book shows how to deliver coaching that helps anyone achieve extraordinary results.

From the Author
We wrote ADAPTIVE COACHING because so many books on coaching presented "the one right way" to coach, and our research with thousands of people who had received coaching told us that people preferred to be coached in different ways. We discovered that the most effective coaches varied their approach to coaching depending on what their clients wanted. Moreover, they often adapted their coaching style during sessions if clients wanted or needed something different. Taking a client-centered approach to coaching is not difficult if coaches are open to using different methods (directive vs. nondirective, programmatic vs. circumstantial, specific vs. holistic). However, most people coach the way they were coached themselves, and they often don't see the alternatives. So we wrote this book to explore the different styles of coaching and when coaches should use them. We intended it to be a practical and useful guide, so we included numerous coaching dialogues taken from actual sessions. We also described how effective coaches listen, ask insightful questions, give clients feedback, reflect on their observations of clients' behavior, offer advice, and confront clients. Finally, we offer a human change model that gives coaches a practical way to help their clients make lasting behavioral changes. We close by discussing how to adapt your coaching style to diverse clients: cross-cultural, cross-generational, women and minorities, and C-level executives. We show that no matter what your own makeup as a coach, you must be adaptive when you coach people who differ from you in some important ways.

About the Author
Terry R. Bacon, Ph.D., is founder and chairman of the Lore International Institute, a professional development firm specializing in executive assessment, education, and coaching, and has a strategic alliance with Heidrick & Struggles, the world's premier executive search firm. His clients include Putnam Investments, American Express, General Electric, Ford Motor Company, and Fluor Corporation. A prolific author and popular speaker, his most recent books include WINNING BEHAVIOR and SELLING TO MAJOR ACCOUNTS. Karen I. Spear, Ph.D., is a senior researcher for the Lore Research Institute and director of the institute's peer review program. Formerly a professor, researcher, and executive in higher education, she has consulted widely on faculty development and program design and has coached consultants and executives at such leading firms as McKinsey and Company. Together Bacon and Spear have taught coaching for nearly thirty years and have coached more than 7,000 executives and professionals in a variety of industries.


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